On information that JMB Shura member Salahuddin was hiding in Brahmanbaria, the joint forces of police and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) conducted the five-hour raid at different points of the district as of 9:00 last night.

Three JMB activists arrested in Brahmanbaria admitted that they had carried out bomb blasts at five places in the town on August 17 last year as part of the outfit's countrywide bomb attacks.

The Rab, which earlier arrested JMB chief Abdur Rahman, his closest aide Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai, JMB's military unit chief Ataur Rahman Sunny and Shura member Hafiz Mahmud, said they intensified intelligence and operational work to arrest the fugitive Shura members--Salahuddin and Khaled Saifullah.

"We have spread our intelligence network all over the country besides strengthening our operation to arrest Salahuddin and Saifullah and other JMB leaders," Commander Mashuq Hassan Ahmed, Rab Legal and Media Wing director, told The Daily Star yesterday.

The investigators, meantime, said from now on they will feed the media with information related to operations only as they have instructions from the government top level not to disclose the findings of interrogation of the top JMB leaders.

The law enforcers also prevented photojournalists from taking photographs of the arrested JMB men during and after the operation in Brahmanbaria.

The law enforcers are yet to begin interrogation of Bangla Bhai who is undergoing treatment for burn and splinter injuries he had received during his capture on March 6 in Mymensingh.

Before starting the interrogation, the investigators will have to produce the militant before the court and obtain remand order.

BRAHMANBARIA
Our Brahmanbaria correspondent reports: On information from JMB cadre Sabbir Ahmed Dulal arrested at Paltan in the capital on March 8, the police and Rab-9 cordoned off Kazipara, Kandipara, Collegepara and adjacent places in the town at 3:00am yesterday and started a door-to-door search.

JMB operatives Sohel, 25, of Golkhar village of Akhaura, Alamgir, 28, of Mohammadpur village, and Arafat, 26, of Bhadughar village, were arrested during the raid.

The three admitted to their involvement in the August 17 bomb blasts in the town.

"Sohel admitted that he knew about the August 17 bombing a few days prior to the attack," said a police source. The financial support for carrying out bombings at five points in Brahmanbaria was also provided via Sohel, the source added.

The law enforcers also picked up a local astrologer named Sukumar Roy for quizzing.

In the evening, the Rab and police members deployed at different points of the town arrested one Sheikh Mohammad Sumon, 25, at Kautoli in the town.

SHERPUR
Members of the Detective Branch (DB) of police arrested JMB district commander Mozahidul Islam Sumon, 30, in Gourdar area of Nakla upazila in the early hours of yesterday, reports our Sherpur correspondent.

In another raid, sadar thana police arrested JMB Ehsar (full-time) member Abu Syed alias Sumon, 28, raiding Nagpara village of Sherpur municipality.

The police produced the two before a first class magistrate's court with a remand petition. The court granted a 10-day police remand for them each.

Mozahidul, an accused of the August 17 serial bomb blasts in Sherpur, was a close aide of the JMB chief and would accompany him on his visit to Jamalpur and Sherpur.

The police were interrogating both the two JMB operatives last night.